Bunta
Bunta (ブン太, Bunta) is a sage who lives in Mount Myōboku. Being born to unknown parents who abandoned him in the middle of the forest, an infant Bunta was found by Shima and was taken to Mount Myōboku, where he was raised and trained by Shima and her husband, Fukasaku. Having no real talent using ninjutsu, genjutsu, and having very limited skill in taijutsu, Bunta focused all of his time and effort in learning senjutsu, becoming a very powerful Sage over the years. The name Bunta was given to him by Fukasaku and Shima, and his birth name is currently unknown. Background Early life Bunta was born to unknown parents on a small village near the border of the Land of Fire. One day, both of his parents were travelling, and after walking for a undisclosed distance, they abandoned the then-infant Bunta nearby the road, and returned to their village. Later that same day, Shima, who was looking for supplies, found Bunta and feeling pity on the baby, took him back to Mount Myōboku, where she, along with her husband Fukasaku, raised the boy in hopes of making a talented shinobi, while also giving him the name Bunta. Training with Fukasaku During his childhood, Bunta was constantly trained by Fukasaku in how to perform ninjutsu, but both soon discovered that Bunta had little skill using it. Trying other methods, Fukasaku unsuccessfully tried to teach Bunta how to perform genjutsu. Running out of options, Bunta found some success using taijutsu, but his abilities were limited. Realizing the boy wasn't as talented as he thought he was, but sensing an enormous amout of chakra reserves within the boy, Fukasaku focused his time in teaching Bunta senjutsu and was delighted to see that Bunta had a natural talent for senjutsu and gladly trained the boy to master it over the years. While also training senjutsu, Bunta became friends with Gamabunta, with Bunta and Gamabunta occasionally playing and training together, with Bunta being one of the very few people Gamabunta respects and admires. Heading to Konohagakure After the day of his tenth birthday, Fukasaku informed Bunta he would take him to Konohagakure in order to have him make friends with others than simply toads and also encourage Bunta to embrace the Will of Fire from Hashirama Senju. Despite Bunta's protests about not wanting to leave his home, Fukasaku convinced him otherwise, and reverse-summoned Bunta, and himself, to Konoha, where they were greeted by the Third Hokage, who was informed beforehand by Shima about their arrival. As Bunta respectfully greeted Hiruzen, Fukasaku informed Hiruzen about Bunta's flaws in ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu, and his incredible skill in senjutsu and begged to help Bunta in his quest for growth. Promising he would take care of him, Fukasaku returned to Mount Myōboku, while Bunta followed Hiruzen to his office. When they arrived, Bunta was informed he needed to enroll at the Ninja Academy. Despite feeling he wasn't ready to become a shinobi and rather becoming a sage instead, Hiruzen informed Bunta that he needed to understand the shinobi and accept them before thinking about becoming a sage. Bunta, accepting Hiruzen's words, agreed and was enrolled at the Academy. When he first arrived, Bunta failed miserably, not being capable of performing the most basic of techniques, such as the Clone Technique and the Transformation Technique. This caused Bunta to be bullied by some students in the Academy, who mocked him for his lack of skill, and constantly beat him down during breaks. During one of those beatdowns, Bunta was saved by Minato Namikaze, who was one of his fellow students, and easily fought off the bullies. Asking Minato why would he help someone he doesn't even know, Minato responded by telling Bunta he knew he was a good guy, and couldn't bare to see him being hurt because of his flaws, and flaws could be overcomed, and offered to become his friends, which Bunta accepted. After this, Bunta and Minato went on to become best friends, with Bunta constantly teasing Minato over his crush on Kushina Uzumaki, with Minato not denying it and always talking about her when they were alone, something that Bunta never complained about. At the graduation day, Bunta became incredibly depressed when he failed to graduate, but became happy nonetheless for Minato's graduation. Despite not graduating, Bunta was still approved as a shinobi due to his exceptional skills with senjutsu, but was unable to be assigned to a team and worked on his own. After a series of uneventful missions, Bunta met with Jiraiya, one of the three Legendary Sannin, who was also skilled in senjutsu and was also Fukasaku's pupil. Bunta was happy to hear that Minato had become Jiraiya's student, before asking the Sannin to teach him senjutsu, which Jiraiya gladly accepted. Training with Jiraiya After being accepted as Jiraiya's pupil, Bunta began learning numerous different types of senjutsu, while also improving his taijutsu skills, and gradually became more and more skilled, to the point where Jiraiya himself said that Bunta would one day surpass him. Jiraiya later prepared a sparring session, facing both Minato and Bunta at the same time, and despite becoming stronger, Minato and Bunta were still unable to defeat Jiraiya, although the two continued to become stronger. Eventually, Kushina was kidnapped by Kumogakure, and wanting to save her, Minato asked Bunta for his help, and the two managed to pick Kushina's trail after she left behind strands of her red hair to mark her trail in the hopes that someone would find her. Having found her, Bunta and Minato defeated the Kumo-nin before rescuing her, and Bunta watched on glad as Minato explained his admiration for her hair, and how Kushina fell in love with him. Later, Bunta, Minato again faced Jiraiya in a sparring session, while Kushina watched on, and despite losing again to Jiraiya, Bunta and Minato became slightly stronger than the previous time. Eventually after Minato became a Chūnin, Bunta decided to return to Mount Myōboku to perfect his senjutsu training, but promised to return to Konoha one day, and bid Minato and Kushina farewell as Fukasaku reversed-summoned them back to Mount Myōboku. Nine-Tails' Attack Nearly a decade since leaving Konoha, an young-adult Bunta was seen training in Sage Mode along with Gamabunta before suddenly, Gamabunta was summoned. Bunta, being worried that Gamabunta was summoned so late at night, went to see Fukasaku and ask him if he knew where Gamabunta was summoned to. Fukasaku said he was summoned by Minato at Konoha, and Bunta became worried that something bad was happening and pleaded that Fukasaku summoned him to Konoha. Seeing his determination, Fukasaku granted him his wish and summoned him to Konoha. When he arrived, Bunta was shocked to see the Nine-Tails unleashed and destroying the village, and assumed something must've happened to Minato and Kushina. Before he could grasp about what was going on, Bunta noticed Minato standing at the top of his carved face at the Hokage Rock and went to help his friend, before noticing someone appearing behind Minato, but was glad once Minato was able to escape from him, and turned his attentions on helping Konoha on forcing the Nine-Tails out of the village. Accessing his Sage Mode, Bunta managed to lift an already destroyed building and threw at the Nine-Tails' head before pushing it back with a single punch to its face, before being knocked away by the beast's tail. After managing to push the fox out of Konoha, Bunta witnessed Minato and Kushina in the middle of the forest and ran to their aid, before Minato placed a barrier around themselves and the Nine-Tails, and Bunta couldn't do anything but watch his best friend sealing the beast inside his newborn son, Naruto Uzumaki, at the cost of his own life. After the sealing, Bunta, along with Hiruzen and some other Konoha shinobi run to their side, and Bunta grabbed the barely-alive Kushina as she informed Hiruzen about their son's name and how they named it after the hero from Jiraiya's book, and begged Hiruzen and Bunta to look after him before dying from her injuries. Bunta later attended Minato and Kushina's funeral and cried as he paid his respects to his two best friends, and promised them he would make sure Naruto grow up to be a outstanding shinobi and person as both of his parents were. Afterwards, Bunta returned to Mount Myōboku and told Fukasaku and Shima about what happened and began training restlessly for over twelve years at the thought of one day seeing a grown-up Naruto and training him to become as strong as his parents. Personality Because he lived at the peaceful Mount Myōboku without the negative influence from wars, battles and deaths, Bunta was almost considered to be a pure-hearted individual, deeply caring about life itself and his closed ones, such as Fukasaku, Shima and Gamabunta. Both Fukasaku and Jiraiya said that Bunta was a shrewd person, not one to do something without a reason, a trait which he shared with his best friend Minato. Bunta is also a very humble and down-to-earth individual. He was never arrogant about his talent in senjutsu, and openly claimed that despite pointing out others' flaws, he had several flaws himself. Before being sent to Konohagakure, Bunta expressed doubts about the outside world after hearing stories on how wars, deaths and battles were what "made" the world, and was initially against living with humans, preferring live at Mount Myōboku with the toads, but was convinced by Fukasaku after telling him that he could be able to find good friends among humans and told him to do his best, despite the obstacles he might find along the way. Despite not being above battling, and actually enjoying battles and feeling excitement at the thoughts of battling strong enemies, Bunta is a pacifist due to the kind and "warm" nature he grew up in Mount Myōboku, rarely showing any signs of anger, vengeance or arrogance. Bunta deeply desired peace for the world, and despite knowing that the world was plagued by hatred, he still held hopes that one day the world would achieve peace, and believed that either Jiraiya and Minato could achieve that peace. Bunta also stated himself that despite knowing that he was powerful, he didn't feel he could be the one to achieve peace because of his remaining doubts about the shinobi world, and "entrusted" the road to peace to Minato, Jiraiya and, later, Naruto Uzumaki. Despite his kind and pacifists nature, whenever Bunta gets (although its rare) angry, he can be very unforgiving, such as being very angry at the Nine-Tails, and "Madara Uchiha" for causing Minato and Kushina's deaths, and feeling small signs of hatred towards Pain for killing Jiraiya. Bunta is also shown to have a very soft side of Minato and Kushina's son, Naruto Uzumaki after having the Nine-Tails sealed inside of him, and being hated and ignored by the villagers of Konoha for it, and was always willing to be nice to Naruto, mostly because he knew Naruto was a good person and also because he was the son of his two best friends, Minato and Kushina. Another of Bunta's prominent traits is being one of the very few humans that enjoy Shima's cooking, with both Minato and Jiraiya, and later Naruto, expressing disgust towards her cooking and avoiding her food as much as possible. Bunta explains this, saying that they couldn't truly "appreciate" a "different" type of food, although Bunta understood their reasons for not liking it, and admitted himself that Kushina's cooking was almost (if not better) than Shima's, something Minato really felt amused about. Appearance Bunta has fair skin, black eyes and short spiky hair as a child. He also wore a black kimono with a red shirt underneath, black pants and black shinobi sandals. As he grew up, Bunta let his hair grow to waist-length, also leaving it flat, and tied his hair back in a loose ponytail tied a few inches above the end. After arriving in Konoha, Bunta gained a black apron tied around his waist with the Uzumaki crest, in homenage to Kushina on the front. He also wore orange pants and black shinobi sandals, and instead of sporting the Konoha forehead protector, Bunta had bandages wrapped around his forehead, hands, wrists and waist. After being under Sage Mode's influence for over a year nonstop, the orange pigmentation around his eyes became permanent. Abilities Ever since a young child, Bunta's abilities were looked down upon for his inability to use either ninjutsu or genjutsu. Despite having some talent, although weak, for taijutsu, Bunta's skills as a shinobi were slim and unappreciated. After discovering his natural talent for senjutsu, Bunta focuses all of his time at senjutsu, and becomes extremely skilled and powerful using it, to the point where Fukasaku stated that Bunta would surpass Jiraiya in senjutsu, something that even Jiraiya himself believed it. After arriving in Konoha and training under Jiraiya, Bunta also increases his ability in taijutsu, being able to fight on par with Jiraiya, and although he was still unable to defeat him, Jiraiya stated that his skills have increased drastically since his arrival in Konoha. Alhough Bunta cannot use ninjutsu externally, he can still mould and use chakra for his tree and water walking skills. Chakra and Physical Prowess Bunta has incredibly large amout of chakra reserves, potent enough to use senjutsu. Under Sage Mode, Bunta is able to lift and throw large boulders and even buildings. Without the influence of Sage Mode, Bunta's physical strength is still very admirable, being able to break a tree in half with his kicks, although only small ones. Taijutsu Although he was relatively weak at first, Bunta's taijutsu skills vastly improved over the years under the tutelage of Jiraiya, being able to fight on par with himself, Minato and Orochimaru. With his coordination with senjutsu, Bunta becomes capable of using Frog Kata and Frog Strike. With senjutsu possesing less taijutsu techniques, Bunta's arsenal in taijutsu resumes to these two techniques, although Bunta only uses them as ways to first test their opponents in battle before using more powerful and reliable techniques. Senjutsu With his inability to use ninjutsu and genjutsu, Bunta focused all of his time and effort in perfecting senjutsu, something that Bunta had natural talent for. Senjutsu is a specialised field of techniques that allows the user to sense and then gather the natural energy around a person and draw it inside them, then blending it with their own chakra to create senjutsu chakra. This natural energy-empowered state grants the practitioner a high amount of a type of chakra which is stronger than other types of chakra. Other benefits include an unnaturally high level of raw strength, incredible speed, and huge resistance to physical attacks. With it, Bunta is able to raise a frog statue much heavier than himself, and even throw Gamabunta a long distance. With his experienced ability for it, Bunta demonstrates a mastery over senjutsu and learns over dozens of techniques and abilities, such as the Sage Art: Frog Call, along with his Wind Release chakra, Sage Art: Wind Release Dust Cloud. After years of harsh and intense training, Bunta is eventually able to master Sage Mode, symbolised by the orange pigmentation around his eyes. Using Sage Mode makes Bunta's techniques stronger, enhances his physical abilities. Along with these enhanced abilities, Bunta gains the ability to sense chakra and perfectly determinate which person the chakra he sensed belonged to. Intelligence Living most of his life in Mount Myōboku under the influence of Fukasaku's wise personality, Bunta is a very wise individual himself, being able to perfectly deduce a person's negative emotions just by focusing on their facial expressions and the way they act. In combat, Bunta could correctly deduce the basic mechanics behind a technique after seeing it only once, and from there plan around its strengths and weaknesses to his or his allies' advantage. If by some means his strategies and plans failed, Bunta would remain calm, formulate a backup plan quickly and without being inconvenienced, proving tremendous strategic and tactical ingenuity. Part I Search for Tsunade Twelve years since Minato and Kushina's deaths, Bunta was training at Mount Myōboku, and after receiving news from Fukasaku and Shima on how Jiraiya and Naruto were travelling in search of Tsunade, Bunta became determined in meeting Naruto for the first time in twelve years and decided to encounter them both. Fukasaku decided to reverse-summon Bunta close to Jiraiya and Naruto's current location and began making his way to find them. Bunta finally encountered Naruto when Bunta saved his life by blocking Kabuto Yakushi's attack with his Frog Kata. Introducing himself, Bunta vowed to protect him before engaging Kabuto in battle. Despite having mastered Sage Mode and being extremely powerful, Bunta still struggled against Kabuto, who was Orochimaru's assistant and pupil. Getting distracted by Orochimaru and Jiraiya's fight, Bunta was struck down by Kabuto's charka scalpel. Being unable to move his body, Bunta was at Kabuto's mercy before being saved by Naruto and his shadow clones. Helping Bunta to his feet, Naruto thanked him before telling him to leave Kabuto to him and go protect Shizune and Tsunade. Bunta then watched as Naruto battled Kabuto and was amazed seeing Naruto master his father's technique, the Rasengan and watched proud and silently asked Minato and Kushina if they were watching him at the moment and told him that Naruto would eventually and surely surpass them both, and couldn't wait when that day arrived. After the battle, Bunta formally introduced himself to Naruto and was about to reveal himself as his parents' friend, before being stopped by Jiraiya, who silently informed him that Naruto wasn't ready yet to learn about his parents' identities, and simply introduced himself as an "old friend" that he didn't remember, leaving Naruto confused, but claimed that he still liked Bunta because he saved his life despite not knowing him very well. Bunta and Naruto then went their separate ways as Naruto, Shizune, Tsunade and Jiraiya returned to Konoha and Bunta returned to Mount Myōboku, but not before promising Naruto they would meet again. Part II Pain's Assault Three years since his encounter with Naruto, Bunta remained at Mount Myōboku, and was shocked and glad when he discovered that Naruto was at Mount Myōboku in order to master senjutsu. Recognizing Bunta from three years earlier, Naruto greeted him before telling him about Jiraiya's death, something that Bunta already knew about and expressed his console for Naruto. Bunta offered to help train Naruto in senjutsu, much to Naruto's shock as Bunta revealed he was only capable of using senjutsu, and had no ability whatsoever for ninjutsu or genjutsu, and his taijutsu skills being less than average. Bunta showed the enhanced strength that Sage Mode granted him and helped Fukasaku train Naruto how to master . After Naruto's training was complete, they heard about someone attacking Konoha and they returned immediately, and were shocked to see nothing but a wasteland where Konoha once was. Bunta was informed by Naruto to help look over the villagers and allow him to fight the Six Paths of Pain on his own, and Bunta granted his wish and proceeded to escort some lost villagers to a safe location, while receiving details about Naruto's fight from . After Naruto successfully defeated all of the Pain's, Bunta was seen along with the entire village of Konoha celebrating Naruto's victory and expressed his pride in seeing the son of his best friend being respected and admired by the village, which was Minato's wish before he died. Afterwards, Bunta bid farewell to Naruto, but not before Naruto told him that he met his father within his subconscious and helped him subside the Nine-Tails' influence, and thanked Bunta for not only helping him, but also being Minato's best friend, before Bunta returned to Mount Myōboku. Blank Period The Last: Naruto the Movie Although not present, Bunta was mentioned by Naruto when he told Hinata Hyūga about how Bunta occasionally visited Konoha in order to train with Naruto, not to increase Naruto's skills, but actually Bunta's as Bunta believes that he is the one who must learn from Naruto. Trivia *According to the databook(s): **Bunta's hobbies include training, meditating and sleeping **Bunta's favorite foods are and Kushina Uzumaki's cookings. **Bunta has completed 166 official missions in total: 45 D-rank, 40 C-rank, 13 B-rank, 66 A-rank and 2 S-rank. Quotes * (To Kushina) "I'll protect him no matter what. I'll give you my word..." * (To Naruto) "Well... I'm an old friend... but I suppose you can't remember me" * (To himself about Naruto) "Naruto... you have surpassed all of us... you're the one who's gonna save this world!"